Aqua Star: Acro

The first part of this fight goes down in two screens at the bottom of the sea. Acro will be swimming backward, constantly spitting out Skulls, Fishbones, and Gordos. Your best bet here is to inhale the Skulls and Fishbones and spit them back at him. The Gordos? Those are invincible and just bounce around.

When Acro reaches the edge of the screen, he'll stop and charge up an attack. You'll want to position yourself on the sea floor near the opposite wall. He'll do a little shake, then charge straight through the screen and into the background, before swimming back to the foreground to ram you. You'll see a shadow on the bottom indicating where he's going to land. Don't be there! Swim to the side of the shadow and start inhaling. You'll suck up a couple of rocks that appear after he lands. Shoot these at him right after he lands or when he starts spitting again.

After he does that ramming attack, be careful! If you're on the right side of the arena and he's retreating to the left, don't swim to his left, and vice-versa. He'll retreat that way.

He might also do another attack. First, he'll swim in a gentle straight line across the screen, then try to belly-flop onto you. Watch for the shadow again and move to the opposite side of the screen (right if you're on the left, left if you're on the right). Inhale the rocks that appear. Don't spit them yet! Unlike the previous attack, he'll swim off-screen and then charge back for another belly flop. Now's the time to spit your inhaled rock(s) at him. After about six hits, the whale will go down, and the ground will break.

But don't worry, the screen will scroll upwards, and you'll need to swim up constantly. Just keep yourself in the middle of the path. You'll encounter some stationary enemies, plus the angry whale will be back. He'll swim upwards, shooting torpedoes at you, but they're pretty easy to dodge.

Once he's done with that, watch where he swims back to. A couple of seconds later, he'll charge across the screen in the exact same spot. Make sure you're not in his way!

How do you hurt him during this upward chase? Inhale the fishes or Acro's own torpedoes and shoot them at him when he charges upwards. Remember to shoot a little *before* he crosses you, or you'll miss because he's surprisingly fast!

If you're finding this part a bit slow, here's a pro-tip: inhale a torpedo and spit it at the *next* torpedo Acro shoots at you. This will create a Bomb + Bomb power star. Inhale that and shoot the whale when he stops by.